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must be considered as offenses by law. To illustrate, the disclosure ofsomeone’s positive status (such as by neighbors or officemates) to othersis not a crime defined by law. Disclosure is a crime only if done in breachof medical confidentiality, a violation of Republic Act 8504. The next sectionprovides a listing of the relevant criminal offenses in this regard.B. POTENTIALS AND LIMITATIONS OF LITIGATIONBecause they are not defined as offenses by law (including R.A 8504), thefollowing types of incidents are not conducive to seeking redress:■ discriminatory acts within the family (such as use of separate eatingutensils, separate washing of clothes), including disinheritance (ifdone properly, e.g., through a lawful will)■ sexual rejection■ exclusion from social gatheringsThere are also types of acts of discrimination and violations that may ormay not prosper in court, depending on whether there are other elementsinvolved, such as:■■■■Undue disclosure of HIV status to others. In most cases, thisis not a crime, unless what is done is a breach of medicalconfidentiality, in which case, an offense is committed as per R.A.8504.Being gossiped about. Gossiping per se is not a crime. It couldbe if the information being passed around is malicious, in whichcase the crime of Slander or Intriguing against honor can beimputed.Lack of care by family members. It is difficult to construe thisas a crime, as there is no law that can compel anybody to takecare of another. It is different matter though if a child below 7years old is left helpress, in which case a criminal offense,Abandonment of minor, is committed.Refusal to rent (a dwelling unit). There is no law that obliges alandlord to rent to any person. However, litigation is possible if aPLHIV previously rents and is being ejected from the unit due tohis/her positive status and for no other reason.Looking through the list of acts of discrimination and violations againstPLHIV (as presented in Section I, pages 2 to 4), and excluding thosediscussed above, it can be seen that for the remainders (excluding laborrelatedacts), there are possible equivalent criminal offenses. A careful48 SEEKING REDRESS FOR HIV-RELATED VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS